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Singh Campbell Headline Inaugural BMW Asian Open

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The 2002 European Tour officially kicks off this week, as players travel to the Westin Resort in Taiwan for the inaugural BMW Asian Open.

The event ' which is co-sanctioned with the Asian Davidoff Tour ' is scheduled for Nov. 21-25, and boasts a total purse of approximately $1.5 million.

As a result, several big names will be showing up for the first-year event.

Vijay Singh, Michael Campbell, Nick Faldo, and Italian Costantino Rocca are all on the starting lineup.

Singh might be a good pick for the week, as the Fijian won back-to-back titles last year at this time at the Carlsburg Malaysian Open and the Caltex Singapore Masters. Like this weeks tournament, those events were co-sanctioned with the Davidoff Tour.

While Singh has not won since that time, he has put in some good showings in 2001, finishing second twice and third three times on the PGA Tour.

Campbell too, is experiencing a good run of golf. Last week, he partnered with fellow countryman David Smail for a T2 finish at the WGC-EMC World Cup in Japan. Despite leading after the second and third days, the two ultimately lost in a playoff to the South African team of Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.

Plus, Campbell has history at this Westin Ta Shee course. He won the Johnnie Walker Classic in 1999, when it was held at this very same venue.

For Faldo, while victory on the European Tour has eluded him for some time, he did have some nice moments in 2001, including a tie for third at the Volvo PGA Champinship.

Long-hitting American John Daly was scheduled to compete in Taiwan, but he pulled out on Monday, citing concerns over air travel following the terrorist attacks on the U.S. two months ago.

While making his decision out of caution, Daly will surely miss the action this week, as the course is known to be one of the areas best. In addition to hosting the 99 Johnnie Walker, it served home to the Davidoff Tours Ta Shee Open in 1997.